Students at the Rivers Secondary College’s campuses of Kadina, Lismore and Richmond Rivers are about to embark on a new film-making journey with a national film education program, Nextwave Online.

The program aims to equip young people 10-25 years old with filmmaking skills, and create short films they can enter into the Nextwave Youth Film Awards, before being screened across Australia for Youth Week each year.  

Kadina teachers and students.

Just shoot

Mirco Guidon was the Nextwave Youth Film Awards winner in 2015 and 2016. He is also a Southern Cross University (SCU) media graduate whose advice is “just shoot something with your friends and then show it to people”.

“As a young person who’s interested in filmmaking the best thing you can do is just get out there and shoot,” Mirco said. “Going through the process of creating over and over again you’ll find that you see the world a certain way and maybe you’ll enjoy doing it enough to pursue it as a career.” 

Mirco said there was no singular path to follow in developing a career as a filmmaker.  

“I made short films, submitting them to local festivals including Nextwave (called RecYaShorts at the time), watched countless hours of YouTube tutorials and at the same time studied Media at SCU which gave me a strong theoretical foundation. It’s a constant process of learning, but it started with just getting started. With getting out there and shooting.” 

David Horsley with Kadina students.

Film for the future

The free online education service is part of the Film For The Future program, offered by Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF), in partnership with SCU. It’s about providing free filmmaking education access to Nextwave Online’s paid subscription service for a select group of regional Australian schools.  

Remote delivery

Delivered remotely online, students and teachers can do lessons in classrooms or from home. Teachers receive companion guides to teach the modular video episodes, which include 10 x 20-minute episodes. The episodes comprehensively teach introductory filmmaking, with additional free resources and activities available. 

Rivers’ Executive Principal Ian Davies said it is exciting that college students in the creative and performing arts will have an opportunity to participate.

Grayson Cooke and David Horsley.

SCU Vice President (Engagement) Ben Roche said the University’s three-year partnership with SWIFF would foster and support the creativity of young Australians.

“I hope some may take that experience further to study film and digital media at university as they pursue a career in the creative industries,” he said.

Nextwave Director and cinematographer Co-Director Kate Howat said “take one look at your social media feed and it’s easy to see that young people are already accessing film making technology through their smart phone or DSLR – we just show them how to use it to help tell their story."

For more information visit http://www.nextwavefilmfest.com.au

Nextwave

Nextwave is the largest youth film development program in regional Australia, consisting of an in person workshop tour, the Nextwave short film competition, the Nextwave Youth Film Awards held every January, and the Nextwave Youth Week Film Festival which travels to over 20 regional communities each April.

Due to COVID-19, the Coffs Harbour-based film festival team have elected to launch a new national online film education portal, called Nextwave Online, in partnership with Southern Cross University.